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Journalism of Courage
Facing the heat for his recent critical remarks on the state of Indian democracy, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has once again approached Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking permission to respond to “totally baseless and unfair charges” made against him by senior Ministers in the Lok Sabha, PTI reported on Tuesday.
According to the news outlet, while making the request, Rahul cited one of the rules of procedure and conduct of business in the lower house of the Parliament and also pointed out that the same rule has been invoked previously by a former BJP Union Minister.
“I am seeking this permission under the conventions of Parliamentary practice, the constitutionally embedded rules of natural justice and Rule 357 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha,” he said
What is Rule 357?
In the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, under the section ‘Rules to be observed by the members’, there is rule 357 for ‘personal explanation’. It states, “A member may, with the permission of the Speaker, make a personal explanation although there is no question before the House, but in this case no debatable matter may be brought forward, and no debate shall arise.”
In his request to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Rahul referred to the instance when former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in 2015, invoked rule 357 to respond to comments on him in Parliament by then-Congress leader and now Minister of Civil Aviation in the BJP-led Central government, Jyotiraditya Scindia. Scindia had accused Prasad of demanding a parliamentary debate on the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ mentioned in the preamble to the Constitution.
What did Rahul say in London?
On February 28, Rahul said at Cambridge University that “everybody knows…that Indian democracy is under…attack”, and “the institutional framework which is required for a democracy — Parliament, a free press, the judiciary, just the idea of mobilisation…, these are all getting constrained…”.
Around a week later, during a discussion in Chatham House, he said: “It is an Indian problem and the solution is going to come from inside… However, the scale of Indian democracy means that [it] is a global public good… If Indian democracy collapses…democracy on the planet suffers a very serious, possibly fatal blow. So it is important for you too.”
How has the BJP responded?
The BJP has accused Rahul of making “denigrating, unwarranted comments” and spreading an “untenable narrative” about Indian institutions on foreign soil as part of a “calculated attempt” to bring them into disrepute.
Last week, the party also approached the Lok Sabha Speaker, asking him to “set up a special committee of Lok Sabha to explore whether Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should be suspended for allegedly insulting the country, its democracy, and Parliament”, The Indian Express reported.
